The invention relates to data recording apparatus and, more particularly to data recording apparatus suitable for use with ultrasonic testing equipment.
Many types of components for industrial products are inspected using nondestructive testing techniques such as ultrasonic inspection (UI). Various types of UI apparatus are available for providing an indication of defects in components such as seamless tubing.
Pulse-echo ultrasonic inspection equipment generates an ultrasonic signal, detects echo signals, and provides an output signal which is indicative of the presence of a defect in the component being inspected when the echo signal exceeds a reference, or gate, level. Upon indication of such defect, the inspection process is halted and the defective portion of the component is marked. In order to provide more rapid inspection of large components by UI equipment, multiple channels are often employed. If the UI equipment provides an analog output signal indicative of the size of defects, the value of such analog output signal may be manually recorded for each channel.
Although ultrasonic inspection equipment is available which includes the built-in capability for automatic data recording, other types of equipment known as indication-only equipment do not provide for data recording. However, it is often desirable to add automatic data recording capability to existing, lower cost, indication-only apparatus. Moreover, greater flexibility can be obtained if data recording apparatus can be removably connected to indication-only type apparatus to allow a single data recording unit to be selectively connected to a plurality of indication-only ultrasonic inspection units.
Some types of indication-only ultrasonic inspection units provide an output signal calibrated in volts. However, it is difficult to determine the severity of the defect merely from the value of the output signal indication without some indication of the gate level which is being utilized by the ultrasonic inspection equipment to determine it an echo signal represents a defect.
It would therefore be desirable to provide apparatus for recording data from indication-only ultrasonic inspection equipment which can be selectively connected to any of a plurality of indication-only ultrasonic inspection instruments. It is further desirable to provide such capability for a multichannel instrument. It is additionally desirable to provide apparatus for automatically recording ultrasonic inspection defect data and to relate such recorded defect data to the reference level being employed by the UI equipment.